TUSCALOOSA -- If R.C. Slocum could see Bryant-Denny Stadium now, there's no telling what he would say.

He was truly speech­less in 1994 when he visited the home of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Texas A&M's head football coach was too polite to insult a longtime friend.

"When I first got out of coaching, he called me and wanted to bring a couple of donors and an architect to look at our facilities," said Alabama Athletics Director Mal Moore, then an associ­ate athletic director.

"He told me, 'Mal, we're going to Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Florida State and Alabama.' I said, 'We'll be glad to show you around.' "

In addition to other facili­ties, Slocum saw the sta­dium, which at the time had one upper deck and seated 70,123.

Borrowing ideas from elsewhere, Texas A&M went on a building spree. It was one of the schools Moore and others from Alabama visited roughly seven years later when they set out to examine model facilities.

"I told him we were get­ting ready to do a $100 mil­lion enhancement to our fa­cilities," Moore said. "And this is what he said. 'Man, I'm glad to hear that, Mal. . . . I'll never forget when we came through there . . . how disappointed we all were.'

"That said more to me than anything. Like a slap in the face."

Now, above and beyond that $100 million enhance­ment, a third Bryant-Denny expansion in the past dozen years is nearly complete.

The last big crane was scheduled to come down Saturday. By the end of July, 17 months of work will end on the $65 million South End Zone project.

As dust literally begins to settle on Paul W. Bryant Drive, there's a new site and a new sight to behold on Alabama's campus. What once was a modest home became a mansion, and now it's a castle that could become the envy of the college football world.

"Everything in college athletics is an arms race," said Thad Turnipseed, who has overseen the construction as Alabama's director of athletic facilities. "We'll put ours up against anybody's."

With a previous seating capacity of 92,138, Bryant-Denny Stadium was the nation's eighth-largest college football stadium. The expansion brings the seating capacity to more than 101,000.

Only three schools will have bigger stadiums: Penn State (107,282), Michigan (106,201) and Ohio State (102,329).

"They're all big," Turnipseed said, "but I think ours is by far the nicest and has the most character."

Moore is a little more reserved in expressing his delight but no less pleased with the results.

"I think we built what Alabama needs," he said, "and what the name Crimson Tide deserves."

Ticket demand

This is a stadium that opened in 1929. It seated 12,000. Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas coached on this field. Paul "Bear" Bryant not only roamed the sidelines as a legendary coach; this is where he played from 1932-36.

This is a stadium that was expanded to 31,000 seats in 1946, and that still was the capacity when Moore came to play quarterback at Alabama in 1958, Bryant's first season as head coach.

"It was huge to me," Moore said. "I had never seen anything like it. Where the South End Zone is located now, that's where we warmed up as quarterbacks behind some wooden bleachers."

Bryant wanted a new stadium built near where the current softball stadium sits, but the land belonged to Bryce Hospital, and the state would not let the university have it. A new stadium has not been considered since then. Denny Stadium, as it was known at the time, was expanded to 43,000 seats in 1961. It grew to 59,000 seats in 1966, to 70,123 seats in 1988 and to 83,818 seats in 1998. Until then, Moore noted, the stadium had a name but no sign proclaiming it.

The $47 million North End Zone opened in 2006. The South End Zone is a virtual mirror image, though the upper deck was built four rows bigger to push the seating capacity past 101,000, past Tennessee's Neyland Stadium (100,011). Arms race, indeed.

Moore thought the North End Zone would be the finishing touch on the stadium.

"We looked at the state of Alabama, with four million people," he said. "A 90,000-seat stadium is a big stadium. We felt that was what we needed at the time.

"But with the success we started to enjoy in the last three or four years, the demand for tickets grew. We had over 10,000 on the waiting list. I wish we could help every one of them. The student body has grown. I think it's been record enrollment five or six years in a row now. The president needs more tickets for students. And there was a demand for more skyboxes.

"All of that said build it bigger. So we have."

Not just an upper deck

This eight-story, 230,000-square-foot structure includes extravagances as well as bleacher seats. The expansion was proposed with an $80 million price tag. The cost is $15 million less, because construction expenses were down with the economy.

The street level is a marketplace. Tickets aren't necessary to enter an open area with retail that will be part food court, part year-round hub for students and guests. An Admissions Welcome Center will occupy some of the space.

The second level will house a grand Donor Hall of Recognition and the offices of the Crimson Tide Foundation, an expanded fund-raising machine. The posh area features polished granite floors, wood paneling, interactive kiosks, a rotunda, board room and theater. On the walls, donors who have given more than $1 million will be recognized in special ways.

The third and fourth levels house the 16,500-square-foot Stadium Club, an upscale sports grill that features food, beverages and flat-screen televisions. There is room for 1,500 members, but membership for the upcoming season was cut off at 1,000 so the room can be judged for elbow room. "It sold out in one-and-a-half mailings," Turnipseed said. The cost is $500 plus the price of a ticket. The target was a certain level of Tide Pride members who don't own skyboxes.

The fifth level is home to the South Zone Club, a deluxe space that is the counterpart of The Zone Club in the North End Zone. It's an indoor haven for fans who pay $2,000 plus the price of tickets for end-zone seats directly in front of large windows. Flat-screen TVs and a state-of-the-art sound system are featured.

On the sixth and seventh levels are 34 skyboxes and two 45-seat "party suites." They bring the number of luxury boxes in the stadium to 160. The costs for the new boxes are $30,000-$40,000, plus the price of tickets, plus a one-time six-figure donation.

Then there's the upper deck, which seats 8,400. Half of those seats will go to students, whose allotment grows to 17,000 seats, an increase of 2,000.

"Now every freshman can get a package," Moore said. "Some get tickets to three games, others get tickets to four games."

Aesthetics matter

Appearance also was important in this project. Moore has asked for final approval on every detail, from the architectural design to the color of carpet. Great attention was placed on the exterior aesthetics. The materials include red brick, tinted glass, architectural precast concrete. Archways, pillars and soon-to-be-added lights provide a striking touch.

"I'm just very proud of the way it's turned out, the look and everything," Moore said. "In most cases, everything we've done has been better than what you've pictured in your mind."

He marvels at the fact that all of this was done without greatly expanding the stadium's footprint. The new building stands 12 feet from the Paul W. Bryant Drive curb.

So now what once was a nondescript arena is a massive shrine to a football team that is coming off the 13th national championship claimed by the university. A school that for most years played big games in Birmingham to accommodate more fans now boasts a facility that seats 18,000 more people than Legion Field did at its peak.

A stadium that once stood between a cemetery that is still there to the south and fraternities to the north now dominates the campus landscape.

"Now you drive down University Boulevard, and there stands a magnificent stadium," Moore said. "Everybody on this campus, every professor, every student is very proud of the appearance of the facility."

He looks forward to the Sept. 4 opener against San Jose State and a game the following Saturday against Penn State.

"I just think it will be spectacular," Moore said. "The setting we have here, the quadrangle, the bands, the food court, Denny Chimes playing My Old Kentucky Home when we're playing Kentucky ... and you walk a half a block into a 100,000-seat stadium.